5 December 2022: Let's Connect - A Postgrad and Postdoc Networking Event
On 5 December 2022, postgrad and postdoc representatives on the UCD Science EDI committee hosted the “Let's Connect - A Postgrad and Postdoc Networking Event”. The event was attended by 40 postgrads and postdocs from across the College of Science. It provided a relaxed, sociable atmosphere for postgraduate students and postdocs to meet with colleagues across the College and to identify networking opportunities.
Since it was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1992, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities has been observed annually on 3 December and the day aims at promoting a greater understanding of issues related to disability and to mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of individuals with disabilities. Read more...
The United Nations have designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to raise awareness of women being subjected to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; additionally, another aim of the day is to highlight how the scale and the true nature of the problem are often hidden. Read more...
Transgender Day of Remembrance is a commemoration event that has been held annually on 20 November since 1999 and is a day to memorialise those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia. Read more...
International Men's Day is a global holiday that is annually celebrated on 19 November to recognize and celebrate the positive value that men bring to the world, to their families and their communities. Read more...
The RESET workshop, developed and delivered by David Delaney of the UCD Student Advisors Group, ran for four consecutive Mondays in the College of Science in October. The goal of the RESET workshop is to improve student self-awareness, shifting away from a “me” to a “we” mindset. Read more...
September - October 2022: Active* Consent Training
In collaboration with the Students Union, the Student Advisors and the College of Science EDI Committee, more than 80% of Stage 1 undergraduate students have taken part in Active* Consent workshops. Consent is an ongoing, mutual and freely-given agreement to take part in sexual activity. It applies to all relationships, all genders, and all sexualities. The Active* Consent workshop material was inclusive and well-designed to be relevant and engaging, especially for young men. Further workshops will be rolled out for Stages 2 – 4 in Spring.
20 September 2022: Postdoc Appreciation Week
Report by Dr Karina Nigoghossian, College of Science EDI Postdoc Rep
The Postdoc Appreciation week started with a Postdoc Coffee Afternoon on Monday 19th of September 2022. The event was organized by the Research Careers team and hosted by Alanna O’Sullivan (Researcher Development Specialist). Postdocs were able to freely interact, introducing themselves in terms of affiliation, current and previous postdoc experiences, research background and career path. Interestingly, fresh postdocs asked which advice the more experienced ones would give to them. We shared some pleasures and difficulties that life in Dublin offers us, which mainly involved accommodation issues. We also talked about our academic life before, during and after covid. Another common topic was our perspectives for the future and which areas can we can migrate to, if not staying in academia. We also talked about the challenges of our current position, not only related to doing our research and writing papers, but also involving teaching, student supervision, grant writing, and attending career development workshops, among others. Some postdocs mentioned their efforts for building a postdoc community by creating WhatsApp groups and organizing events. All of these conversations among postdocs have shown our motivations for helping each other.
On 20 September 2022, the Postdoc Appreciation day was celebrated in an open event organized by UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences (CHAS) Postdoctoral Forum. The day started with a coffee where postdoc colleagues could meet and chat around the exhibition of photos representing “A postdoc’s life”, which highlighted the efforts involved in this challenging career phase. Messages of appreciation and support were left in a “Positivitree”. During the morning, postdocs were able to train their communication skills in a workshop by Dr Jessamyn Fairfield (NUI Galway). In a very informal session, we were encouraged to speak briefly about our research. This brief talk practised several times helped us to build our confidence and ability to improvise. In the afternoon, Dr Fairfield gave a motivational talk about being “Open to surprising things”. The session was followed by “Take 5”, a flash talk competition featuring postdocs’ research in an unconventional way. The event ended on a warm note with food and drinks, along with an opportunity for exchanging contacts, in order to keep in touch with postdoc peers who we met during the day.
UCD EDI launched a campaign to raise awareness and promote an inclusive and respectful environment on campus, more information is available at Race & Ethnic Equality page on the UCD EDI website.
To celebrate our fathers and highlight some of the support for parents available at UCD, the College of Science EDI committee invited staff members in the College of Science who are fathers of children of any age, infant to adult, to provide some insight into being a father in the College. The videos are quite informal and provide some advice for other fathers about what worked or didn’t work so well when trying to balance parenting and work. You can watch the interviews with Antonio, Simon, Rem and Ritchie on the UCD Science YouTube account.
16 June 2022: PRIDE
The College of Science Celebrated Pride Month on 16 June 2022 in the O’Brien Centre for Science. College Principal, Professor Jeremy Simpson launched the celebration and Dr Niamh Nestor, co-Chair of UCD’s EDI LGBTQI+ Subgroup, gave a moving talk highlighting her own experience growing up gay in Ireland and highlighting the origins of Pride as a protest and one which must continue to be seen as a protest to ensure complacency in pursuing equality for LGBTQIA+ individuals does not stall. Niamh highlighted that although huge strides have been made in legalising gay marriage and improving acceptance of queer people in Ireland that there are still marginalized LGBTQIA+ individuals including trans individuals, and queer people of colour who still face discrimination and stigmatization as a result of their gender and sexuality. There is also no hate crime legislation in Ireland which needs to be campaigned for to protect LGBTQIA+ individuals. We had tea, coffee, balloons, a craft table where people could create rainbow bracelets to take away, and most importantly, a giant rainbow cake! The event was well attended with representation from across the community including students, technical, administrative and faculty members. Feedback was overall highly positive and suggested that the event should be expanded and repeated next year.
1 June 2022: Postdoc Networking Event
The CoS EDI Committee hosted a networking event for postdocs in the O’Keefe Lounge at the Clubhouse Bar. The objective was to provide a sociable, informal space for postdocs within the College to meet and develop relationships. The event was particularly relevant to postdocs, many of whom spent large portions of their time at UCD working from home. The event centred around a table quiz with food provided for attendees. The event was very well received. Three teams competed in the quiz, which went to a tie-breaker, and the feedback from attendees was uniformly positive. There will be similar events held in the following months.
23 May 2022: "Not Just the 8th March"
Not just the 8th of March” was the first EDI symposium of the series “Behind the position”, organised by the EDI PhD members of the UCD School of Chemistry, Maria Rosa Fernandez Pison, Francesca Giulia Nacca, and Mara Di Filippo. The aim of this event was to raise awareness among the scientific community about gender equality, particularly focused on the career path of women who occupy higher positions in academia and industry. For this reason, seven speakers from different employment backgrounds, work and/or family situations, genders and cultures shared their life experiences and hurdles to achieve higher career positions. Moreover, the event was intended to introduce women role models to younger scientists. As PhD students, we believe it is important to show them that, despite the difficulties, it is everyone’s responsibility to make the professional workplace more inclusive and accessible to everyone, regardless of their gender, culture, religion, or background. We strongly believe that big changes must be made together.
UCD has launched a new role/model video series to encourage more girls to consider pursuing pSTEM careers. The video series is titled “Role Models in pSTEM: You Can Be What You Can See”, which showcases ten women from across Ireland who have studied physics, maths, engineering, or computer science. Read more...
IDAHOBIT is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, Intersexism and Biphobia. UCD College of Science is committed to ensuring that our community is LGBTI inclusive. Please check out the Top Ten Tips for supporting LGBTI inclusion for further information and resources.
1 April - 1 May 2022: RAMADAN – How to Accommodate Muslim Employees During Ramadan
The College of Science EDI committee raised awareness that many of our Muslim staff and students are fasting during Ramadan and highlighted some of the issues in an accessible way.
21-27 March was Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2022. The College of Science EDI Committee in collaboration with Julie Tonge and Fiona Quinn, UCD Access & Lifelong Learning, presented a workshop for students who are neurodiverse or who have an interest in neurodiversity. The webinar covered topics such as the support in UCD for neurodiverse students, top tips for focusing in lectures and where to go for more information or to seek a diagnosis. Visit the official website for Neurodiversity Celebration Week for further resources on the topic.
Anyone who has experienced, been impacted by or witnessed harassment on the grounds of race can contact the UCD Dignity & Respect Support Service for both informal and formal support. The Dignity & Respect Support Service can be contacted by telephone at 01 716 7716 or by email at respect@ucd.ie. Further details can be found on the UCD Dignity & Respect website
8 and 11 March 2022: Menopause Workshops
As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, the College of Science hosted two webinars on menopause “An Introduction to Menopause” and “Menopause In The Workplace For Managers” with Loretta Dignam from The Menopause Hub. These educational webinars help to break down the taboo surrounding menopause and demonstrate how menopause is a societal, healthcare, workplace and economic issue. Topics covered include: what is menopause and why does it matter; the symptoms and available treatment options; the line manager’s role in supporting menopause at work; and how to have confident and supportive conversations with staff and provide the best support.
To help break the bias, a range of events were being held across the University to mark International Women’s Day.
To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science the UCD College of Science launched a new video series ‘Role Models in pSTEM: You Can Be What You Can See’, showcasing ten contemporary women from across Ireland, including UCD alumni, who have studied physics, mathematics, engineering, or computer science to highlight the varied and exciting opportunities open to young women in pSTEM. Leading the project, which was funded by the Higher Education Authority and the Institute of Physics, are Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, Assistant Professor at the UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics, and Dr Catherine Mooney, Associate Professor in the UCD School of Computer Science. The full suite of videos, with associated teaching resources for use in classrooms, is available on the Roles in pSTEM YouTube Channel and via the Role Models in pSTEM website.
More information about the launch is available on the UCD website.
